In a recent paper published in Cell Press, the roles of gamma-delta T cells were documented in no less than 33 varieties of cancer. These breakthroughs could give rise to new ways of leveraging these immune cells as biomarkers and therapeutic targets in cancer treatment. With lead researchers hailing from Moffitt Cancer Center, this study shed new light on the ways these immune cells affect cancer therapy outcomes.
It has become increasingly evident that gamma-delta T cells, despite their small proportion. They are very crucial in the activation process of both innate and adaptive immune responses. To realize this role, the researchers at Moffitt Cancer Center led a team of scientists, including researchers at Dartmouth College and Duke University. They employed a new computational algorithm to interrogate the gamma-delta T-cell receptor landscape in 11,000 tumors. The resulting database was comprehensive and tracked the progression of cancer. And its response to various treatments, particularly one type of treatment known as immunotherapy.
“It’s like finding a needle in a haystack,” said Dr. Xuefeng Wang, chair of Moffitt’s Biostatistics. And Bioinformatics Department and lead of the study. “After two years of screening around 700 billion tumor RNA sequencing reads, our algorithm identified 3.2 million gamma-delta T-cell reads. These are crucial for understanding gamma-delta T-cell clones.” The team learned that the diversity and clonality of gamma-delta T cells can greatly affect patient survival and the effectiveness of treatment.
As the study proceeds, plans are underway for its further expansion to include more T-cell receptor repertoires and functional annotations. Including single-cell RNA sequencing analyses that would give further insight into the functional roles that gamma-delta T cells play in cancer. Ongoing work explores the interactions of these cells within the tumor microenvironment and how they contribute to cancer progression.
“The current study not only expands our knowledge of gamma-delta T cells. But also offers new opportunities for treatment approaches,” noted Dr. Wang. “By deciphering the specific roles these cells play in different cancers. We can develop more effective ways of tailoring treatments to achieve superior outcomes in our patients.”
This study was supported by Moffitt’s Immuno-Oncology Program and the Biostatistics and Bioinformatics Shared Resources. Both groups are among the leading teams in computational immunology and personalized immunotherapy research.
The present study therefore represents a very significant landmark in tumor immunology. And may well provide the basis for new approaches to the more effective treatment of cancer.
ANI
